It’s not exactly a state secret that the holiday season has been stretched to absurd lengths. The stores are decorated, the trees are lit, and chances are excellent that you ate a piece of Halloween candy on Nov. 1 while listening to “Deck the Halls.”

But once the Christmas rush is out of the way, we know we can spend the last week or two enjoying those nostalgic holiday specials on television, right?

Surely you jest.

The expansion of the holiday season has spread to television, too, so if you plan to watch Christmas specials anywhere near Christmas, you had better set your DVR.

“Frosty the Snowman”? That’s on Saturday. “A Charlie Brown Christmas”? Nov. 30. “Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer”? He’s holding out until Dec. 1. Were you planning on getting extra-sentimental with the entire run of the Hallmark channel’s Christmas rom-coms? Sorry, those started on Halloween.

No, if Christmas specials are important to your enjoyment of the holidays, it is time to wake up and smell the egg nog.

Here, therefore, is our guide to the holiday shows you shouldn’t miss, and all the rest, too.

THE MUSTS

“It’s Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown” 8 p.m. and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” 9 p.m. Nov. 30 and Dec. 24, ABC One can imagine the reaction if CBS and Coca-Cola executives had been told 50 years ago that the Peanuts special they were about to air would be the subject of a special honoring its golden anniversary.

The show was commissioned by McCann Erickson advertising executive John Allen as a vehicle for the agency’s client, Coca-Cola, and sold to CBS.

It was put together in short order, using child actors to voice the characters and a jazz trio to provide the background music. When the brass finally got to see it, they were more than a little worried. The animation was rough, the sound rougher still. The kid actors were hard to understand. And was the ending too overtly Christian for a mass audience?

They showed it anyway – it was too late to change – on Dec. 9, 1965. And it was an overnight sensation. The ratings were great, the reviews greater.

ABC now owns the rights to “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” For the 50th anniversary, the annual showing will be preceded by a one-hour special hosted by Kristen Bell. Live performances of music associated with Peanuts characters will be punctuated with reminiscenses about the original special.

“Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” 8 p.m. Dec. 1, CBS Still unsurpassed in the world of kid-oriented Christmas specials, “Rudolph” gets its 51st annual airing this year. Fun fact: The first showing came with a different ending, but viewers complained so much that the Misfit Toys were left behind that it was re-edited.

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” 9 p.m. Dec. 2, NBC This is the original 30-minute animated version, not the the Jim Carrey movie. The latter isn’t horrible, but the source material simply doesn’t hold up for two hours, and no amount of set decoration can top the spectacular artwork crafted by Seuss and director Chuck Jones.

“Shrek the Halls” 8:30 p.m. and “Toy Story That Time Forgot” 9 p.m. Dec. 3 and 15, ABC There are a million, maybe more, cheap holiday spinoffs from movies that do little but try to cash in on a name kids already love. These two are exceptions. As excellent as the movies? No, but at least they are in the same ballpark.

“Prep & Landing” 8 p.m. and “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” 8:30 p.m. Dec. 17, ABC Original TV specials for children went through a staggeringly long dry spell before these two nutty elves from Disney showed up in 2009. The sequel is good, too.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” 8 p.m. Dec. 5 and 24, NBC Are you old enough to remember when you could watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” on TV in July? A paperwork error put this movie into the public domain from 1974-93. With no rights payments to make, TV stations aired it whenever they had a hole in their schedule. That familiarity turned the Frank Capra film from an obscurity to an almost-required annual event. NBC now holds the strings tightly, showing the movie just twice a year.

“A Christmas Story” 24-hour marathon begins 8 p.m. Dec. 24, TBS A very weird movie, constructed as a series of vignettes that don’t really have much of a story thread to hold them together. The kid wants a BB gun? He’ll shoot his eye out! But the vignettes work perfectly for television, consumable in small bites between commercials. TBS’s marathon Christmas showing is genius, too, as you can duck in for small bites whenever you need a break from the relatives.

THE IN-BETWEENS

Some of the other holiday television fare on the primetime schedule.

“A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” 8 tonight 8 p.m. Tuesday, ABC

“Once Upon a Holiday” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Hallmark

“Planes, Trains and Automobiles” 8 p.m. Wednesday, the CW

“SNL Thanksgiving” 9 p.m. Wednesday, NBC

“The 12 Gifts of Christmas” 8 p.m. Thursday, Hallmark

“Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” 8 p.m. Friday, ABC

“Crown for Christmas” 8 p.m. Friday, Hallmark

“Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” 8 p.m. Friday, the CW

“Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special” 9 p.m. Friday, the CW

“Merry Madagascar” 9:30 p.m. Friday, the CW

“Frosty the Snowman” 8 p.m. Saturday, CBS

“Frosty Returns” 8:30 p.m. Saturday, CBS

“A Christmas Detour” 8 p.m. Saturday, Hallmark

“A Gift-Wrapped Christmas,” 8 p.m. Saturday, Lifetime

“The Story of Santa Claus” 9 p.m. Saturday, CBS

“The Christmas Gift,” 9 p.m. Sunday, Lifetime

“Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” 9 p.m. Dec. 1, ABC Family

“Christmas in Rockefeller Center” 8 p.m. Dec. 2, NBC

“The Santa Clause” 8:30 p.m. Dec. 2, ABC Family

“Fred Clause” 8:30 p.m. Dec. 3, ABC Family

“CMA Country Christmas” 9 p.m. Dec. 3 and 25, ABC

“Elf” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4, ABC Family

“Just in Time for Christmas” 8 p.m. Dec. 5, Hallmark

“The Flight Before Christmas,” 8 p.m. Dec. 5, Lifetime

“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” 10 p.m. Dec. 5, ABC Family

“Last Chance Christmas,” 9 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, Lifetime

“Coat of Many Colors” 9 p.m. Dec. 10, NBC

“The Hollywood Christmas Parade” 8 p.m. Dec. 11, the CW

“On the Twelfth Day of Christmas” Dec. 12, Hallmark

“Becoming Santa,” 8 p.m. Dec. 12, Lifetime

“The Flight Before Christmas” 9 p.m. Dec. 13, CBS

“Wish Upon a Christmas,” 9 p.m. Dec. 13, Lifetime

“A Home for the Holidays” 9 p.m. Dec. 18, CBS

“Yes, Virginia” 8:30 p.m. Dec. 18, CBS

“A Christmas Melody” 8 p.m. Dec. 19, Hallmark

“The Spirit of Christmas,” 8 p.m. Dec. 19, Lifetime

“I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown” 8 p.m. Dec. 19, ABC

“Christmas Land” 8 p.m. Dec. 20, Hallmark

“I Love Lucy Christmas” 8 p.m. Dec. 23, CBS

“Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” 8 p.m. Dec. 24, the CW

Contact the writer: 714-796-7724 or mhewitt@ocregister.com or @WatcherofTV on Twitter or The Watcher on Facebook.